Lufthansa bleibt am Boden

Hat die Lufthansa da die Rechnung ohne den Wirt gemacht ?
Gestern blieb jedenfalls der Kranich am Boden und flog nicht über das Mittelmeer in die Wüstenmetropole. Der Libya Herald hatte dies auch schon näher analysiert und glaubt, dass es noch länger dauern wird bis Lufthansa und Austrian Airlines wieder in Tripolis landen werden.
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/02/21/lufthansa-and-austrian-refused-permission-to-return-to-libya/
So pessimistisch wollen wir dann doch nicht sein, und hoffen, dass am Sonntag der Flugebtrieb von Austrian Airlines wieder aufgenommen wird.
Der ursprüngliche Plan, am 20.2. wieder zu fliegen, konnte wegen formeller Hindernisse nicht wiederaufgenommen werden.

French Dinner in Tripoli

It is a tough life in Tripoli these days. Especially when you get invited by some "Frenchies" to a dinner party.
Those who are not french, are forced to wave the big french tricolore at the entrance. Well, at least then you know what to expect:
Tasty, grilled french cheese. Stinky but delicious. French red grape served by great hosts.

Though everything was very well planned, we, the guests, were missing something. The hosts got somehow surprised by our demand for napkins, but after some seconds in disbelief, one of them ran to the toilet and came up with a roll of toilet paper.
Bon appetit! 

Austrian Airlines resuming flights to Tripoli

Mabrouk !

Austrian Airlines decided today to resume their flights to Tripoli as of tomorrow, 20 February 2013. Flights were suspended for a period of two weeks because of security reasons.
So gone are the hour of waiting at Istanbul Atatürk airport (though: GREAT lounge with Do&Co catering), or hoping your luggage will make it through Rome Fiumecino.
Flights will take off five times a week, Sunday to Thursday, leaving Vienna 9.55 arriving Tripoli 12.45. Leaving from Tripoli 13:50, arriving Vienna 16:45.
From there you can continue to many destinations worldwide.
Did you know that through Vienna you have the fastest connection to London (except the direct flight)?

Now comes the bad news: Prices are -like with all other airlines - rocket high. However, only swimming is cheaper....
You don´t need to got to their ticket office in Bur Tarabulus, 2nd floor, you can also book and purchase your ticket online on www.austrian.com and select "libya" as your home country.

And a last good news: Austrian Airlines promised not to take out randomly flights in the future.
Thank you ! 

Revolution Anniversary Celebrations in Tripoli

 What an evening and night. 17 February, the anniversary of the day when everything started in 2011. It actually started already on February 15 in Benghazi, but we don´t want to be picky now.
Thousands of cars poured into the center when night fell over Tripoli. Most famous neighbourhoods where people said that the mood was best were Fashloum, Dahra and Souq Jouma, but in principle the whole city was a party place.

One Libyan told me he thinks there are "at least 50 million cars" out tonight, but I doubt that figure a bit ;-)
Old and young, men and women, beautiful and ugly - everybody   was on the streets.
Especially at checkpoints the crowd went wild, got out of their cars, started dancing, waving the flags, singing and chanting.
 

I had one person telling me on Twitter that on 1 July 2011 the crowd was definitely bigger and more people were out. Well, maybe, I cannot tell, as I was in Tripoli only July 20. But I can tell  one big difference from the "Green" parties to the ones  you see these days:

It´s the huge smile on peoples faces....

Congratulations, Libya, on your revolution day !

Congratulations to Libya and its people for the anniversary of the revolution. And what a revolution it was ! For those of you who have tuned in only later on, just have a look at this video.

I think it says everything about how the uprising was fought. 

And won.... 

Happy Valentine´s Day !

(no, this photo was not taken in Libya ;-)

Restitution of Houses

In our neighbourhood about half of all houses are currently un-inhabited. Deserted and left alone. Their owners were part of the regime (like one of our direct neighbours, the former Minister of health), or had one of their relatives very close to the regime.
Like the house of Jaluds son, which you can see on the first pictures. People have sprayed on the walls of the houses either revolutionary slogans or indications of whom the house belongs to.

I guess this will still be a lot of discussions between current owners of houses, the former owners (until they got expropriated in the 70ies) and in many cases a lot of heirs.
Already before the revolution a restitution plan was elaborated, but no action was taken.
I guess it is not getting any easier.